Progress Report, and a Warning

No book review this week. Sorry. Next week. Maybe even two.

Thought I'd update my progress this time around. I've just about done with the first pass through the Work-In-Progress. That's the one where I try to pick up the misspellings and egregious grammar errors, as well as the really obvious bits and pieces of story. Reading through that draft now to make notes on what needs changing, filling in, expanding, cutting, etc. Oh, yeah, and I still have to finish the ending!

I've got the first 2 chapters out to a reader for crit. Always important to get another set of eyes (or two) on a work in draft. Too often, what seems obvious to me is a "Huh?" moment for the reader. And there are always a few mechanical errors I miss. The goal is to get this thing in finished form by the end of the year. Right now, that seems like it should be on track.

And the warning: It's one that you hear a lot. We all know it, and at one time or another, we all get bitten by not doing it. What happened? Well, yesterday, we had no internet service here at the house all day long. Ok, I thought, that is probably a good thing, since I will have to get some work done and I will not have the temptation of social media to distract me. (Yes, I close all that stuff when I am working, but the possibility of it is still there, niggling at my mind.) And I did get a fair bit done. I had moved the laptop from my desk to the living room, where I could put my feet up to work. Put the computer aside, and got up, WITHOUT HITTING THE SAVE ICON. Oh, yes, I see you all cringing out there! Of course, I came back and the thing was frozen. Couldn't get it working again. Thankfully, when the BaldMan looked at it after work, he managed to get it running. Took a remove and replace of the battery, and why that worked- no clue. But I did lose a chunk of work. I am not happy, but I have only myself to blame. And I lost the time twise- once yesterday, and again today when I had to redo it all. Will I do that again soon? You can bet not. Will I do it again eventually? Probably. Will it bite me in the ass again? We'll see. Until then, I repeat, as a warning to you all: Save early, Save often!